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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, OCT 11: There is a strange chemistry between the Delhi Golf Club and the Asian PGA, which brings the best out of Indian golfers. In three years of its existence, the last two being sponsored by Hero Honda, the event has been won by Indian golfers twice. Gaurav Ghei with that unforgettable chip on the 18th won in 1996, and then in 1997 he came close to it on the final day. Last year, Jyoti Randhawa, shrugging off a two-stroke penalty for an inadvertent infringment in the third round, played amazing golf on the last day to carve his name on the board.
But the man who wants to win, more desperately than all others, is Jeev Milkha Singh. He is skipping the lucrative Volvo event on European PGA which is also scheduled for the same dates, October 27-31. Another reason for his hunger is that he has not won any event since the brilliant 26-under showing at the Phillip Morris in 1996, and he also wants to put his name on the trophy put up by his personal sponsors. And there will be no better way to make the point than by winning this Davidoff Asian PGA event.
Talking to the media, Hero Honda Motors Director Pawan Kant Munjal said, “this year the field for the tournament is going to be very tough. But I hope one of the Indians in the fray will win the title.”
The US $ 200,000 Hero Honda event has 125 confirmations from Asian PGA players. The winner’s cheque will be US $ 33,200. The list of players who have confirmed include the current Order of Merit leader, Kyi Hla Han of Myammar, twice Order of Merit Kang Wook-Soon, and Malaysian Open champion Gerry Norquist of the United States.
Flying in almost straight from the ariport for the press meet, Jeev was sharing a few words with Rohtas Singh during the course of the afternoon. Quite the right man considering Jeev’s current title drought. For, on Saturday, Rohtas, the man who has won more than 100 domestic titles, ended a four-year title drought at the Surya Open in Kathmandu.
“It (a title win) will come, it just a matter of waiting,” said Jeev, who has got special invitations to two highly prestigious events in Japan, the Dunlop Phoenix Open and the Casio World Open. “Tiger Woods is going to be there, but the downside is I miss another Hero event (November 17-20) in my hometown, Chandigarh,” added Jeev.
With him was Jyoti Randhawa, who said the Dunhill Cup was a great experience. The defending champion of the Hero Honda Masters, Jyoti Randhawa, who considers his 1998 win here as a major milestone in his career, is off to the Lexus Open in Thailand and then plays in Singapore before returning for the Hero Honda event. The third Indian at the Dunhill Cup was Vijay Kumar, who rushed home to Lucknow to tend to his wife, who is not well. But Vijay Kumar will be back in Delhi for the Hero Honda Masters.
Back to Jeev, who is also off to Thailand tonight, the Chandigarh lad will however skip the following week to attend a friend’s wedding in his hometown. Then he pushes off to the Far East to play in Japan and he will also play the Johnie Walker Classic in Taiwan.
